Harrison Grubbs

Recent Posts

In the past two months, we have attended the AESP, Distributech, AEEEast and NESEA conferences and kept up with all of our GreenTech Media and Utility Dive readings and podcasts. Having been devotees of these industry staples for years, we have noticed a trend that causes us to ask, “Where did energy efficiency go?”

NEEP, NECEC, NESEA, ACE, VTREV… what do all these abbreviations have in common? They are all the energy-related conferences that KSV sponsored or attended in October. It was Energy Awareness Month, and we celebrated it by making the rounds for conference season.

The “Utility of the Future” is a buzzword that has been dominating our industry’s publications and conference circuits for the past few years. Many industry thought leaders have published their ideas, and many of these smart ideas include elements of strategic electrification, distributed resources, non-centralized generation, and non-wire alternatives.

Marketing in advertising has two purposes: sales activation and brand building. Sales activation is targeted at people who are looking to purchase on the spot, or it aims to trigger a purchase decision. Brand building has four key goals:

A decade ago, wind energy mostly meant giant investments, ugly legal battles and major public opposition. As recently as 3 years ago, we saw proposals in many states—good proposals by respected companies—being tossed out. Lack of public support combined with weak political legs dragged the highly visible CapeWind project through the dirt from its initial approvals in 2005, to 2017, when it was finally shut down and deemed defunct.

The utility of the future is a hot topic for our clients in the energy space. What will it look like? Who will be steering the ship and who will be struggling to stay afloat? Transportation is a major part of that conversation, and no companies have upended the transportation industry more than Uber and Lyft. The American dream of automotive independence is being challenged in many cities where it is cheaper to use ride sharing than it is to own a car: New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Curious about the intersection of real estate and energy efficiency? So were we. We wanted to know, how much is energy efficiency worth to buyers? And do people put it on the “must have” side of the list when looking at real estate options?

We’ve written, and you’ve read, and then we’ve written again, and you’ve read again, about personalization. You must personalize your marketing. OK, you get it, but you ask, how? and why? and am I doing it right?